Thaindian News

Chennai, Oct 20 (IANS) City-based Sundaram Asset Management Company is setting up a special purpose vehicle in Singapore and forging a tie-up in Mauritius to channel investments in Indian securities and redemption in foreign currency, a top company official said Wednesday.

“We are planning to set up an international platform in Singapore to channel investments to our mutual fund schemes. We are also looking at a relationship in Mauritius,” Managing Director T.P. Raman told reporters here.

“Simply put the international platform proposed in Singapore is akin to a foreign institutional investor (FII) that will invest in Sundaram Mutual. The proposal is with the Singapore government for clearance,” remarked T.T. Srinivasa Raghavan, managing director of Sundaram Finance, the parent company.

According to Raman, there are several medium size funds with a corpus of around $100 million which have expressed to invest in our funds but would not like to be categorised as FIIs.

Asked about the position of the Global Advantage Fund, post the buyout of BNP Paribas’ 49.9 percent stake in the asset management company, Raman said: “We will negotiate commercial terms with BNP Paribas to operate the fund.”

Early this month Sundaram Finance acquired BNP Paribas stakes in Sundaram BNP Paribas Asset Management Company Ltd. and Sundaram BNP Paribas Trustee Company Ltd., Chennai, for Rs. 141.48 crore.

“Post buyout every thing remains the same except the name,” remarked Raman, referring to the change in the mutual fund’s name to Sundaram Mutual.

He said the mutual fund is working towards increasing its retail reach within India and has decided to come out with a Capital Protection Fund shortly.

On the issue of seeking a new partner, Raghavan said: “We don’t have any extreme view. If there is a case to bring in a partner we are open to that. But we are not immediately looking for a partner.”

Sundaram Mutual Wednesday inducted Harsha Viji as its deputy managing director.